U.S. News & World Report recently issued its annual high school rankings, and once again West Windsor-Plainsboro schools scored well state-wide. High School South was ranked number 14 in New Jersey, and High School North ranked 20th out of 398 public high schools. By comparison, Princeton High School was ranked 10th, and Montgomery was 16th. Nationally, South is 253rd, while North is ranked 360th.

Nonetheless, while both schools ranked very high, and earned “national gold” status, the rankings for both South and North were not as high as last year, when they were ranked at 8th and 16th, respectively. It should be noted that while both schools are above the state average in language and math proficiency, as well as in college readiness (based on AP tests), both schools are also above average in a not-so-positive category — student to teacher ratio.

Both WW-P high schools are also considered among the best STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) high schools in the country. In coming up with this list, U.S. News only considered the top 500 public high schools in the country. South placed 38th and North ranked 43rd. According to this ranking system, based on math scores and AP testing, WW-P schools did much better than other area schools: Princeton ranked 91st and Montgomery 140th.

Regarding the schools’ rankings, Board of Education President Tony Fleres said “let’s be very clear — magazine rankings of schools are based on arbitrary standards, and the primary purpose behind them is to sell magazines. They do not necessarily indicate the level of education a school provides.

“Having said that, I am pleased to announce that High School South was ranked number 14 and High School North was ranked number 20. Being ranked as one of the top schools is an achievement, one that we should be proud of.”

The district’s world languages program has also been recognized as one of the top in the state.

WW-P was one of 10 districts statewide to receive an award for the exemplary quality of its world language and English as a second language (ESL) programs. In order to receive such a distinction, recipient districts needed to comport with a state model language program.

WW-P’s languages programs will now serve as models for other school districts, and their educators will be invited to observe WW-P’s methods of teaching ESL and world languages.

The award was given to the 10 recipient schools by the New Jersey Association of School Business Officials (ASBO). The district had previously received an award from ASBO for having a meritorious budget process (The News, December 29, 2013).